Britain faces an “almost inevitable” terror attack by radicalized fanatics who have recently been “militarized” by the Islamic State (formerly ISIS), top security and police officials warn.

In separate speeches on Monday, both Home Secretary Theresa May
and senior Metropolitan Police officials said the terror threat
posed by jihadists who have returned to Britain from Iraq and
Syria is the most serious the nation has ever faced.

Speaking to MPs, May warned Britain faces the most serious threat
to its security from prospective terrorists since before or after
the September 11 attacks on the US in 2001.

Possible terror attacks could manifest as a ‘lone wolf’ beheading
in a public street or crowded shopping center – or as a crude,
homemade bomb made from fertilizer.

These most recent warnings echo the cautionary words of top
security personnel, who earlier this month told parliament the
state’s levels of terrorist activity are so acute that a terror
attack in the near future is almost certain.

Britain’s most senior police official, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe,
told the BBC on Sunday that MI5 and police officers had foiled a
total of five major terror plots in 2014. This marks a 500
percent increase on last year, with officers generally
intercepting one large plot per annum.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Hogan-Howe said the
challenges Britain faces in monitoring jihadis returning from
crisis-ridden Syria are huge.

“They’re going to be militarized, they will have a complex
web of people that they know, and of course they will have learnt
tactics that they may want to use here,” he said.

He stressed there was a particularly heightened concern regarding
the risk of a “lone wolf” attack on British streets.

Reflecting on the case of British soldier, Lee Rigby, who was
murdered by two Muslim converts in 2013, Hogan-Howe said such an
attack takes little coordination.

“So that means we have got a very short time to interdict, to
actually intervene and make sure that these people don’t get away
with it,” he added.

The Metropolitan Police’s most senior counter-terrorism officer,
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, said on Sunday the
“danger posed by violent extremists has evolved.”

Speaking alongside May at the Royal United Services Institute
(RUSI), he warned such violent extremists are “no longer a
problem solely stemming from countries like Iraq and
Afghanistan.”

On Monday, the home secretary unveiled an array of tough new laws she says will halt the flow of
funding and recruits to the Islamic State and offer greater
protection to British citizens.

The new Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill includes an outright
ban on Britain issuing ransoms to terrorists, and the bolstering
of state powers to monitor extremists online.

Web companies will be obligated to retain data, which assists in
identifying computer or mobile phone users. But the legislation
will not allow internet firms to retain the digital footprint of
web users by logging each visited website. Following an
intervention by the Liberal Democrats, this particular measure
was excluded from the final piece of legislation.

Reflecting on the law forcing internet firms to engage in data
retention, campaigners warned the Counter-Terrorism and Security
Billappeared to
revive aspects of a previous attempt to introduce a
Conservative-backed array of surveillance powers dubbed
the“snoopers’
charter.”

Other notable policy changes central to the Bill include the
power to forcefully relocate terror suspects or render them in
exile, and the power for border officials to seize passport
documentation of suspected jihadists.

The legislation has also paved the way for a government ban on
radicalized individuals returning from war-torn Syria to Britain
for up to 24 months.

The bill will further place a “statutory duty” on
various institutions, including schools, colleges, universities,
the police, prisons, probation providers and local government.

Universities, for example, will be required to ban extremist
speakers from their campuses, while prisons “will have to
show they are dealing with extremist prisoners in an appropriate
way.”

Where organizations fail to take into account guidance issued by
the home office, “ministers will be able to issue directions
to them - which will be enforceable by court order.”

On Tuesday, a long-awaited report by Britain’s Intelligence and
Security Committee is expected to reveal MI5 was unaware of vital
information circulated on social media that could have alerted
security services to the intentions of Lee Rigby’s murderers.